As someone who has had the opportunity to meet a fair number of celebrities – big and small – in real life, I can tell you it’s a bit of a crapshoot. They can surprise you by being nicer than you expected, more horrible than you expected, or honestly, anywhere on that sliding scale in between.
These 17 people know people they consider to be “minor celebrities,” and they’re here to dish on what they’re like in real life.
17. Annoying, boring, and bossy.
I (photographer) had this influencer girl hit me up one day asking to help her with a shoot cause she was in town.
She didn’t offer any pay for it and I was stupid enough to be blinded by her 140+k following thinking I might get something off the back of it.
Anyway, the whole time she was f**king annoying, boring and bossy. I ended up losing half of the pics due to a card error and I genuinely didn’t care since I detested her attitude anyway.
16. Pretty down to earth.
My cousin in the UK went to school with Calvin Harris…from primary to high school. They still good friends and I’ve actually hung out while he was just kinda starting out.
He’s a really nice bloke and pretty down to earth…
15. Kind of a sad story.
I know a girl who’s a “model”. We grew up together. She’s really nice. Really pretty too. She moved out to California in the middle of college. Transferred schools too. All to pursue modelling.
She “dated” some DJ that I think I had maybe heard of once. She had been doing the model/influencer thing for a couple of years. Then Covid hit.
And she just gave up on all of it. She still has her model accounts up, but they’ve all been inactive for over a year now. She still occasionally posts to her personal accounts, but even that isn’t pics of herself or anything anymore.
She briefly came home during the pandemic to see family. I think she’s just burnt out on it. Idk what she’s doing now.
14. Tragedy behind the scenes.
Lived near the biggest gaming channel from my country (100k subs i know not much but we are a small backwards nation) i hate the guys online personallity since its so fake.
In real life guy is just super nice and polite. After i learnd his sister was paralyzed from the neck down and his mom had breast cancer i never talked shit about his channel.
Guy was also very active in the community like showing up to birthdays and red cross events. Overall guy just makes you feel good while your around him.
13. A+ human being.
I know an Instagram influencer who was a contestant on The Bachelor many seasons ago and is a recurring extra on a hit cop show on tv. She followed me on insta and we hit it off. Chatted a lot and when she was in my area for a car show, we made plans to meet up.
She is absolutely just as lovely in person as she is on social media. Super super sweet. She just had a baby and she’s letting it all hang out on insta… struggle with losing weight, being tired, etc… none of that perfect mom 100% of the time BS.
We’ve been wanting to meet up again, but Covid kinda put a pause on that. I recently had a tragedy hit members of my family and she asked her followers for prayers without going into too much detail (very respectful) and she personally donated to the GoFundMe that was set up.
She checks in on me regularly to see how I’m doing. A+ human being.
12. The old guard.
I used to manage this carpenter’s Twitter, YouTube, & Instagram pages, as he was an old salt and couldn’t understand computers. He was a nice enough dude and paid me a decent salary, as I managed his social media accounts. On top of that, he also paid me extra to record videos that were made for tutorials and take photos of him in his workshop, which I also uploaded on his various social media accounts.
It didn’t take long before he got around 1.5 million viewers (across all three of the mentioned above), which was through making cabinets, furniture, posting basic tutorials on shop and tool upkeep, and so forth.
Unfortunately, he passed away in an automobile accident after he completed what was his last big project, a complete dining room furniture set, complete with china cabinet filled with dishes made out of repurposed cherry and purple heart wood. His wife requested me to close down his social media pages, and wanted to be left alone to grieve.
I sometimes wonder if she’s doing alright, even though it’s close to 7-odd years since I worked for her husband.
11. A true legend.
My stepbrother is the guy who dove into the wedding cake in the “November Rain” music video.
He’s cool.
10. He totally changed.
I had a friend in college with a YouTube channel doing covers of video game music. He’d been doing it for a few years as a hobby, and was a funny, kind guy that was passionate about music. He had one Skyrim video get big around 2013, and that got him way more traffic to his page. Overnight, he went from being a goofy musician to an asshole that was too good to hang out with us.
He slowly stopped showing up to parties and get togethers, and then stopped replying to texts/calls. He was always networking with some YouTube star or manager. The few times he did show up to a party, he literally could not stop talking about himself and would always direct the conversation back to whatever videos he was working on.
The final time we saw him, he pretended not to know us at PAX East around 2016. I heard he moved to Cali after that, no idea what happened to him. Hope he’s doing ok.
9. Her true self.
I know a fairly popular makeup youtuber.
She doesn’t wear that much makeup when she’s not doing her videos. Sure, for a special occasion, but if she’s just coming to your house to hang out she’ll probably have no makeup. She’s also pretty good about not being on her phone around friends. I find that kinda interesting.
But yeah, she’s funny, nice. I’d say that for the most part, her online persona isn’t an act. It is her true self. She’s probably a bit more bubbly online, but not by much. I’d say more happy and optimistic too. In real life, she struggles with money, weight, self confidence, and life, just like everyone.
If you just met her randomly and had to guess her career, you never would.
8. Sounds exhausting.
I was good friends with a very famous pro-bowl NFL running back. It was complicated.
When we were in public (Even just going to grab some food), he always had to have his persona on. Toothy-assed grin who loved kids and pictures and fans. We would get our stuff and head back home.
As soon as he was in private, he was exhausted.
We could never do anything active because an injury was a million-dollar mistake, so it was mainly just chilling out and watching movies.
The field was the only time he could just be himself and not worry about constraints.
He lived three lives:
-Himself, on the field
-Wearing his “James Carry face” in public
-Completely exhausted in private.
7. A good friend.
I know a similar person. I definitely prejudged what an influencer would be like before I met her.
Overall my friend is a super creative kind independent woman who gets to live her life how she wants. She studied film, so she edits for other people in addition to her own stuff.
She will do anything for a friend and works incredibly hard.
6. He did not practice what he preached.
my friends father, not super famous but was on Oprah and wrote a couple of psychology books, is a total ass. he would spend all his time in his studies secluded from everyone.
the mom would always warn me that he can be pretty moody about the smallest things. one day he came inside smoking a cigar, the kitchen was crowded and i bumped into him, making the cigar fall from his hands. he instantly started cursing so loud and throwing a fit.
funny how he has a PhD in psychology yet can’t really get a grasp of his emotions.
5. Horrid.
My ex best friends little sister is now a decently famous tiktoker.
She’s horrid in real life, but none of that shines through in her videos.
4. Now I want to subscribe!
He runs an automotive YouTube channel with just under 800k subscribers. He’s a genuine car enthusiast, knows his shit well, and is a nice guy in real life too.
3. Truly awful.
My ex best friend/ attempted r**ist is famous on tikktok of all places.
Like, yall, that primal prey stuff isn’t an act for him.
There is absolutely no way he will stop.
And all these women just thirst after him while I have to sit here and be roasted by his videos about his ex that he beat and I.
2. An online persona.
I know somebody who has over 200k followers on their crafting-related Youtube channel.
They are a genuinely nice person and skilled artist in real life, and all of the craft items that they present were made by them using the methods they show — no hidden cheats or shortcuts.
The one difference between the videos and real life is that they’re a fairly quiet person IRL and seem more outgoing on video. But I think that’s sort of like the “lecture persona” that most skilled teachers adopt when they’re in front of a classroom.
1. A surface-level nerd.
I went to high school with a Tik Tok cosplayer who’s currently rapidly rising in popularity. She was a popular girl that bullied people for liking the same things she’s now profiting of, she latched on hard to surface level nerd culture after years of being a bully.
As far as I know, it seemed to start around the time Suicide Squad was released and she got really into Harley Quinn. Always looking for attention, almost had to move high schools because people started calling her out on starting things.
Her mom crashed my French class once.
I don’t know who all of these people are, but I’m definitely off to look some of them up now. Ha!
If you know a celebrity personally, our comments are open if you want to spill some more tea!
